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Anatol Rapoport
Anatol Borisovich Rapoport (Ukrainian: Анатолій Борисович Рапопо́рт; Russian: Анато́лий Бори́сович Рапопо́рт; May 22, 1911 – January 20, 2007) was an American mathematical psychologist. He contributed to general systems theory, to mathematical biology and to the mathematical modeling of social interaction and stochastic models of contagion.
Rapoport was born in Lozova, Kharkov Governorate, Russia (in today's Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine) into a secular Jewish family. In 1922, he moved to the United States, and in 1928 became a naturalized citizen. He started studying music in Chicago and continued with piano, conducting and composition at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik where he studied from 1929 to 1934. However, due to the rise of Nazism, he found it impossible to make a career as a pianist.
He shifted his career into mathematics, completing a Ph.D. in mathematics under Otto Schilling and Abraham Adrian Albert at the University of Chicago in 1941 on the thesis Construction of Non-Abelian Fields with Prescribed Arithmetic. According to The Globe and Mail, he was a member of the American Communist Party for three years, but quit before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1941, serving in Alaska and India during World War II.
After the war, he joined the Committee on Mathematical Biology at the University of Chicago (1947–54), publishing his first book, Science and the Goals of Man, co-authored with semanticist S. I. Hayakawa in 1950. He also received a one-year fellowship at the prestigious Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.
From 1955 to 1970, Rapoport was Professor of Mathematical Biology and Senior Research Mathematician at the University of Michigan, as well as founding member, in 1955, of the Mental Health Research Institute (MHRI) at the University of Michigan. In 1970, during the Vietnam War, Rapoport moved to Toronto "to live in a country that was not committed to a messianic role—a small peaceful country with no aspiration to major power status". He was appointed professor of mathematics and psychology at the University of Toronto (1970–79). The university appointed him professor emeritus in 1980. He lived in bucolic Wychwood Park overlooking downtown Toronto, a neighbour of Marshall McLuhan. On his retirement from the University of Toronto, he became director of the Institute of Advanced Studies (Vienna) until 1983.
University of Toronto appointed him professor of peace studies in 1984, a position he held until 1996, but continued to teach until 2000.
In 1984 he co-founded Science for Peace, was elected president and remained on its executive until 1998.
In 1954 Anatol Rapoport co-founded the Society for General Systems Research, along with the researchers Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Ralph Gerard, and Kenneth Boulding. He became president of the Society for General Systems Research in 1965.
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Anatol Rapoport
Anatol Borisovich Rapoport (Ukrainian: Анатолій Борисович Рапопо́рт; Russian: Анато́лий Бори́сович Рапопо́рт; May 22, 1911 – January 20, 2007) was an American mathematical psychologist. He contributed to general systems theory, to mathematical biology and to the mathematical modeling of social interaction and stochastic models of contagion.
Rapoport was born in Lozova, Kharkov Governorate, Russia (in today's Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine) into a secular Jewish family. In 1922, he moved to the United States, and in 1928 became a naturalized citizen. He started studying music in Chicago and continued with piano, conducting and composition at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik where he studied from 1929 to 1934. However, due to the rise of Nazism, he found it impossible to make a career as a pianist.
He shifted his career into mathematics, completing a Ph.D. in mathematics under Otto Schilling and Abraham Adrian Albert at the University of Chicago in 1941 on the thesis Construction of Non-Abelian Fields with Prescribed Arithmetic. According to The Globe and Mail, he was a member of the American Communist Party for three years, but quit before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1941, serving in Alaska and India during World War II.
After the war, he joined the Committee on Mathematical Biology at the University of Chicago (1947–54), publishing his first book, Science and the Goals of Man, co-authored with semanticist S. I. Hayakawa in 1950. He also received a one-year fellowship at the prestigious Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.
From 1955 to 1970, Rapoport was Professor of Mathematical Biology and Senior Research Mathematician at the University of Michigan, as well as founding member, in 1955, of the Mental Health Research Institute (MHRI) at the University of Michigan. In 1970, during the Vietnam War, Rapoport moved to Toronto "to live in a country that was not committed to a messianic role—a small peaceful country with no aspiration to major power status". He was appointed professor of mathematics and psychology at the University of Toronto (1970–79). The university appointed him professor emeritus in 1980. He lived in bucolic Wychwood Park overlooking downtown Toronto, a neighbour of Marshall McLuhan. On his retirement from the University of Toronto, he became director of the Institute of Advanced Studies (Vienna) until 1983.
University of Toronto appointed him professor of peace studies in 1984, a position he held until 1996, but continued to teach until 2000.
In 1984 he co-founded Science for Peace, was elected president and remained on its executive until 1998.
In 1954 Anatol Rapoport co-founded the Society for General Systems Research, along with the researchers Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Ralph Gerard, and Kenneth Boulding. He became president of the Society for General Systems Research in 1965.